A confession.

2012-01-30T18:19:00.013Z

Over Christmas I played a lot of Lego with my 8 year nephew. (Yes, I'm 29!) But while he got bored after an hour or two I kept going. Below is the result. I'm happy with the proportions and the tilting cab. It's based on the Leyland DAF T244 as used by the Irish Army. They used to park the trucks outside our primary school to go to the shop and from my lower vantage point I could see the universal joint spinning and driving the rear wheels. It was fascinating! Getting that detail right was the main point of the exercise. It also has a crude gear box with a neutral and forward gear so it can be driven by motor or by hand. Think my nephew liked it...

Kidulthood

2012-01-30T17:17:00.003Z

Outside Morrisons on Saturday morning.

Shapes and Colours!

2012-01-29T17:34:00.009Z

Very well behaved contestants too.

KICK IT.

2012-01-29T15:52:00.006Z

Do you find that if a piece of work looks like it was fun to make it's usually good to watch as well?

BANG!

2012-01-28T17:46:00.003Z

An oldy but a goody, Cillit Bang gets reworked by some techno germs.

The Greater and Better World of Tomorrow

2012-01-25T23:15:00.012Z

Norman Bel Geddes designed the 'Patriot' radio in 1939. You can just imagine the cheerful propaganda of To New Horizons (see below) piping out of this star spangled box.

I Love Lego (and lego makers).

2012-01-25T19:18:00.018Z

A selection of the brilliant and bizarre Lego models people put on Youtube. The Pneumatic Caterpillar is truly mind warping (skip to 2:50 if you're impatient!) while Jennifer Clarke's Crane stands out for sheer quality of aesthetic and technical detail. I love the industrial atmosphere and meta-functionality* of the Pin Sorter and last but not least the Felt Tip Printer and its crew of operators just reeks of fun...

* I may have made this term up. But I'm happy with it. Are you?

That's You!

2012-01-25T19:08:00.003Z

That's you, back then, celebrating the deregulation of the financial industry and the end of western manufacturing with some plastic gizmos from the far east.

1938...

2012-01-23T18:40:00.014Z

Images from a Himmler sponsored "scientific" expedition to Tibet.

The whole thing is bizarre and pretty horrible. Tibet looks cool though.

Villains

2012-01-23T18:30:00.004Z

1. Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes.

Name it.

2012-01-23T18:29:00.000Z

Do You Like Maurizio Cattelan?

2012-01-23T18:23:00.001Z

Vehicles

2012-01-23T18:18:00.005Z

A little something for the school run..

Restrepo

2012-01-23T18:08:00.007Z

Still from Restrepo, the best documentary I have yet seen about soldiers and war.

Tim Hetherington (Photographer and Directer) was killed by Gadaffi forces whiled reporting in Libya last year. There is a really moving tribute to him and his incredible work here.

His partner in making the film, Sebastien Junger, has published a companion book entitled WAR. It is up there with any of the Hemingway pieces on American conflicts.

Made In Britain

2012-01-23T18:03:00.006Z

Part of the information display system on the first computer at Bletchley park.

Reminds me of an AIR album cover...

Roll, Pitch, Yawn.

2012-01-23T17:56:00.009Z

Actually not yawn, I love these terms.

Organised Leisure

2012-01-23T17:54:00.001Z

Screenshot from The Inbetweeners Movie.

Where to begin?

2012-01-23T17:39:00.009Z

I've been lax in posting over the last few months but have built up a stack of lovely images. Please enjoy.

USS Pueblo. Only US ship currently held by enemy forces. (North Korea).

Recession Special

2011-11-20T22:33:00.000Z

Happy Happy Happy

2011-11-14T19:33:00.000Z

We're History

2011-11-01T22:34:00.008Z

A documentary about the war in Vietnam. Does it remind you of anything that is happening now?

I Got Clamped.

2011-10-28T11:19:00.008+01:00

Made In Queens

2011-10-28T11:08:00.003+01:00

For lovely photos from the project do click below...

http://www.madeinqueensfilm.com/

El Guincho

2011-10-28T10:56:00.002+01:00

Did that keep your attention?

Flying Machines

2011-10-17T14:07:00.006+01:00

Party Going On

2011-10-08T17:57:00.004+01:00

9th and penultimate year of the Fancy Dress party.

Trying to keep the graphics odd and un-themed.

Steve Edge, Snellen Chart.

2011-10-08T16:58:00.012+01:00

I met Steve Edge in the waiting room at Moorfields Eye hospital. He had catalysed an animated conversation between 7 or 8 total strangers. He in turn told me about Zach Smith (previous post). For more Steve see this video.

Zach Smith

2011-10-08T16:53:00.003+01:00

This is exciting. More exciting than Rocket Mail.

Missile Mail

2011-10-08T16:37:00.014+01:00

'Before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail.'

Apache Pilots

2011-10-08T16:22:00.005+01:00

Stills from Channel 4's pretty patriotic documentary about British forces fighting in Afghanistan.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)

2011-09-26T16:25:00.008+01:00

Cinema doesn't get much better than this.

On Piracy

2011-09-26T16:20:00.003+01:00

Omar-S lays it down on copying music. Same applies to design.

Boo!

2011-09-21T22:26:00.002+01:00

Possible favourite cinemagraph.

Join the Dots

2011-09-21T21:42:00.008+01:00

It's London Design Week and it's been pretty busy, but very enjoyable. Above is the itinerary for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (coloured blue, red and green respectively). It worked out as 83 miles driven in heavy traffic.

Vehicles

2011-09-01T23:11:00.010+01:00

As seen on the streets of London, vehicles from Italy, Sweden, America, Germany and France.

Punks

2011-08-30T12:52:00.007+01:00

Members of the 101st Airborne prepare to jump into occupied France, 1944.

Please Come Back

2011-08-26T14:24:00.006+01:00

We've also got a 2 star food hygiene rating.

Rebel cam

2011-08-24T21:05:00.001+01:00

RSA Animate - Crises of Capitalism

2011-08-18T20:59:00.002+01:00

Lighter Lit

2011-08-18T16:33:00.001+01:00

Graff

2011-08-17T09:48:00.008+01:00

Sign writing in SW3.

The power and the glory

2011-08-15T12:36:00.003+01:00

Ad Fail

2011-08-11T22:19:00.002+01:00

Levi's do 'Riot Chic'. Launched on Tuesday, pulled on Wednesday.

Moral Re-Armament

2011-08-10T18:00:00.003+01:00

'The crisis is fundamentally a moral one. The nations must re-arm morally. Moral recovery is essentially the forerunner of economic recovery.'

This is from 1938. More here.

Argos, Dalston

2011-08-09T14:46:00.003+01:00

They modified their shutters after getting broken into the first time. Nice work.

Riots, Tottenham

2011-08-07T17:02:00.015+01:00

Adidas trainers were definitely the most popular looted items. The police looked very tired.

Those are coat hangers all over the floor.

Аэросани

2011-08-02T11:03:00.001+01:00

Shall We Dance?

2011-08-01T10:26:00.001+01:00

On Reflection

2011-07-28T16:23:00.003+01:00

Whitewall

2011-07-25T16:09:00.003+01:00

Nuke 'em boys

2011-07-22T13:16:00.003+01:00

!

2011-07-19T15:55:00.003+01:00

?

2011-07-18T20:48:00.002+01:00

2011-07-18T20:07:00.004+01:00

Rave geometry

2011-07-03T19:18:00.006+01:00

Sierpinski called it a Sierpinski Triangle.

Wrinkles

2011-07-01T15:20:00.006+01:00

The next day you come home from work and the whole front of your house has melted.

J Carpenter.

2011-06-27T11:46:00.006+01:00

Lord can he direct. Stills from Big Trouble in Little China (1986).

Classic

2011-06-24T11:12:00.006+01:00

Sikorsky H-5 / Westland Dragonfly. There is one of these down Chatham boatyard,

along with submarines, frigates and other rusting industrial remnants from the tail end of

the British empire. Definitely worth a day trip.

From the Ministry of Defence

2011-06-16T09:44:00.003+01:00

Part of the new online security campaign by the Ministry of Defence, share at your peril.

Weekend reading

2011-06-13T15:48:00.010+01:00

Hanford, the place that produced the plutonium for the bomb detonated over Nagasaki.

Richland, a closed city built by the US Army Corps of Engineers to house the bomb scientists and technicians working at Hanford.

The Paperclip People, German scientists whom America conscripted to design her weapons at the end of WW2.

Caption was 'Too Cute!'

2011-06-13T14:03:00.002+01:00

From The Firearm Blog.

In Memoriam

2011-06-12T14:45:00.007+01:00

My second Casio F-91W failed 6 years into it's life, again through the strap material coming into contact with an abrasive cleaning solvent. The first one lasted 5 years. They're not bad.

Casio case

2011-06-08T16:11:00.004+01:00

Casio calculator case repurposed for iphone.

Dungeness Trip

2011-06-07T14:04:00.005+01:00

2011-06-04T15:34:00.000+01:00

Research

2011-05-30T17:13:00.002+01:00

Musical Interlude

2011-05-19T16:57:00.001+01:00

Curtis Inglis / Retrotec

2011-05-17T18:39:00.000+01:00

Recycled boggle

2011-05-17T14:15:00.002+01:00

'Face down in river mud'

2011-05-17T14:05:00.001+01:00

George Smiley is back on Radio 4. Try it, you'll like it.

Fork Crown Detail

2011-05-11T13:43:00.006+01:00

Nano Metric

2011-05-10T11:00:00.002+01:00

Studio 1868

2011-05-05T23:02:00.004+01:00

More ancient LDN here

أخبار هامة

2011-05-04T22:14:00.001+01:00

Pay Homage

2011-04-27T21:27:00.006+01:00

More Apple storefronts

ZIL-2906

2011-04-27T11:33:00.006+01:00

The Russians built a screw-propelled vehicle, the ZIL-2906,

for recovering cosmonauts who landed in inaccessible areas.

Completely Detached

2011-04-26T19:16:00.009+01:00

Pavilion for one, spotted in Wicklow.

2011-04-20T16:03:00.000+01:00

Gold dust

Straight Outta Stanmore

2011-04-06T11:45:00.003+01:00

One of those mixes that stays with you and comes on when there's work to be done..

Now That's What I Call Signage Vol. 1

2011-04-06T11:38:00.001+01:00

Anti Gravity Super Glue

2011-04-06T11:33:00.001+01:00

Reception scene

2011-04-03T22:22:00.002+01:00

You go in through double swing doors. Inside the double doors there is a combination PBX and Information desk at which sits one of those ageless women you see around municipal offices everywhere in the world. They were never young and will never be old. They have no beauty, no charm, no style. They don’t have to please anybody. They are safe. They are civil without ever quite being polite and intelligent and knowledgable without any real interest in anything. They are what human beings turn into when they trade life for existence and ambition for security.

Excerpt from Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister.

2011-04-02T14:49:00.006+01:00

Paris 1

2011-03-31T12:42:00.003+01:00

They have different electricity.

Fun

2011-03-30T17:24:00.001+01:00

Old Money

2011-03-23T19:36:00.005Z

Bakelite and rosewood (?) light switch on the marble clad flight of stairs to the Architecture department at the V&A.

Rubber over Wood House

2011-03-23T19:03:00.004Z

Designed or redesigned by Simon Condor Associates the house is located on the vast expanse of Dungeness beach, Kent. Condor studied Industrial Design at the Royal College of Art. The use of materials is exciting. I would like to stay there and see how it works.

Spoonmeisterz

2011-03-21T16:17:00.007Z

Apparently Hugo Boss first designed uniforms for the SS. I wonder what happened to these spoon designers?

No Fly Zone

2011-03-20T21:07:00.010Z

E

2011-03-19T15:59:00.001Z

For all your paper needs

2011-03-17T15:55:00.001Z

http://strictlypaper.com/blog/

Props from Sir John

2011-03-15T17:44:00.011Z

Old News

2011-03-15T12:20:00.013Z

BBC documentary on the Windscale fire in '57.

(Right click and open link in new tab. Blogspot is acting up.)

NYPD stream

2011-03-14T13:46:00.004Z

http://youarelistening.to/newyork

While I listen to this it is further flavoured by the sound of children playing at a nearby primary school, and birdsong, and toilet extractor fan and clicking keyboard keys.

Absenteeism

2011-03-12T10:54:00.003Z

My niece just turned 13.

International Nuclear Event Scale

2011-03-12T09:44:00.000Z

Treat

2011-03-10T08:48:00.018Z

Why not play the Glee video muted with the Shackleton tune as the soundtrack. When the first Glee video runs out Youtube's 'Up Next' suggestion will be equally suitable.

Post Script. The Skull Disco track has a lot of bass frequencies in it. To get the full effect use headphones or a decent stereo.

Fin

2011-03-07T15:26:00.000Z

Timewarp

2011-03-07T11:52:00.003Z

Rivendell make lovely bikes. But does the 1994 on that head tube badge not jar a bit with you?

*****

2011-03-07T11:30:00.001Z

Cracking work by a Mr Kyle Bean.